Two dangerous things together might make a medicine for one of the hardest cancers to treat. In a mouse model of pancreatic cancer, researchers have shown that bacteria can deliver deadly radiation to tumours — exploiting the immune suppression that normally makes the disease so intractable.

Ingenious, but wait until it’s tested in people. As Fran Visco, founder of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, once said, “We cure cancer in animals all the time, but not in people.”

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Original funding for NOVA Next was provided by Amy and Joshua Boger.

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